Selectmen nix RFP for Saquatucket restaurant

Friday

Mar 2, 2018 at 3:01 AM

By Susan Vaughn

HARWICH -- After weeks of debate, the selectmen on Monday nixed the idea of leasing town land at Saquatucket Harbor for a restaurant. They voted 3-2 against issuing a request for proposal, with selectmen Jannell Brown and Larry Ballantine dissenting.

The proposal has prompted controversy with strong reactions from residents on both sides.

Selectmen Chairman Michael MacAskill said Monday the town had received a petition favoring a restaurant with more than 100 signatures and has heard equally from those who don’t want it.

The restaurant proposal surfaced after the bids for the harbor landside improvements went over the $3 million that town meeting approved last May for the entire project. The original plan included a snack shack, but with cost overruns it could not be covered with the $3 million.

The town recently was awarded a $1 million grant from the Massachusetts Seaport Economic Council for the harbor project. The selectmen voted to authorize Harbormaster John Rendon to accept the grant and to ask town meeting to vote on whether to appropriate the additional money above the approved $3 million to cover the $3.6 million bid and the snack shack,

“Now we have the ability to do the original plan (with the snack shack),” Town Administrator Chris Clark said Monday. “The problem of getting private money for a restaurant is no longer an issue.” However, he said if the board wanted to pursue the restaurant he had drafted a 40-year lease proposal.

Strongly opposed to a harbor restaurant was Charles Beebe, an owner of Brax Landing, a restaurant next to the harbor.

“There is no parking for this. It’s going to affect us,” he said, and added, “The idea of a restaurant really stinks.”

On the other side of the issue was Dan McLaughlin, who had submitted the petition signed by 170 people in favor of a restaurant. He said the petition’s main intent was to send an RFP and find out the impact it might have. He said people are overly concerned about adequate parking and he cited studies that showed not as many spaces are needed at marinas when boaters are not all there at the same time.

He also said a snack shack paid by the town would be a drain on taxpayers.

Tom Johnson Jr., who had submitted a letter of interest in a restaurant because of the cost override, said a clustering of dining venues is a common practice, but he added he would support a snack shack.

Resident Leo Cakounes repeated his previous objections to a snack shack, which he said includes a fryolator and is really a restaurant.

The split among the selectmen is whether the $1 million should be applied to offset the $3 million approved by voters or to use the money to complete the original harbor plan. Brown said she believes the snack shack was an “add alternate” to the original plan and that the grant be used to offset the $3 million.

Selectman Ballantine said he was “uncomfortable with even the snack shack.” He wants more information on the commercial value of the lease and the snack shack, and recommended pulling back from any action for a year.

MacAskill, said he wants the voters to decide what to do with the grant.

Selectman Julie Cavanagh made a strong plea for the snack shack and finishing the harbor plan, which would require an expanded septic system that was not included in the $3 million bid.

“I think the septic system is the most responsible thing we can do. This is a unique asset to all,” she said.

MacAskill said the septic issue will be taken up at next week’s board meeting.

Rendon was the last to come to the podium to say that a snack shack has already been designed as a 500 square-foot walk-up stand with no seats, and the septic system was designed with that in mind. He said the town meeting should decide on the final project.

If the town meeting votes not to use the $1 million for the snack shack and other improvements, the selectmen will then reconsider the options, MacAskill said.